Reunion
by chillysensation
Summary: An unexpected intruder knocked on Rivaille's door in the middle of the night with strange message, that one of the missing soldiers returned home. When he came to Erwin's office he got to meet one of his precious but supposedly long dead inferior. Rivetra


_**Notes: **_I was wondering, what it would be like, if Petra (my one of the most favourite character by the way) somehow managed to survive and what Rivaille's reaction about it would be like. So here it is. I think I came up with really shrewd idea how she did so. :D _**Warnings:**_ OOC characters, _NOT NATIVE SPEAKER_

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He wasn't sleeping as the door started resonating how someone kept banging in them with all the power. It was just after 2 a.m. so under different circumstances he would have been already sleeping. However, the sleep had been avoiding him like a plague for already month and a half. He almost welcomed this night interruption as a distraction from self-destructing thoughts and quickly sat up on the bed. His body stood up automatically to be able to come to the intruder who kept hammering to the wood of his door. He knew exactly who was he going to find behind them. Nobody was as persistent as she was.

The door was unlocked by him hastily before he opened them. The light from the corridor dazzled him, so he just blindly blinked at the well-known silhouette in which he recognized Hanji.

"What do you want, shitty glasses?" he threw at her and frowned his forehead, while he kept blinking quickly to get used to the light from the hall.

"I don't want to bother you this late but if it wasn't important I definitely wouldn't be there, believe me," the spectacled woman started explaining while standing relatively close to him.

He didn't bother to even raise his head and observed her with eyes twisted above, which gave him even more annoyed grimace.

"Then spit it out," he uttered in boredom, crossed his arms on the chest and leaned against the doorframe.

"It will be better, if you come with me right now. It is quite difficult for explanation," she answered neutrally.

He couldn't catch any hint from her voice whether it was either something good or really bad. Anyway, he didn't really want to return to bed, so he didn't even object much.

"Fine, I'll be right back," he nodded in agreement and slammed the door behind himself.

Blind due to the darkness ruling the space of his room he walked to his table with one chair on which his uniform was put over. He just slid into his trousers and the shirt and even didn't bother himself with tying his cravat. It would be no big deal surely, he thought to himself. Just after barely a minute his door opened again and promptly locked them behind. Then he followed Hanji, who silently set out forward.

"And what exactly happened?" he asked plainly chasing her.

"One of the missing soldiers came back, I haven't seen him myself yet," she stated without even turning back to him.

Soon they approached Erwin's workroom. Hanji knocked but even didn't wait for inviting inside and just easily opened the door. He got to hear how she gasped for breath but he didn't see anything himself due to her still standing in the doorframe.

"Move yourself, four-eyed," he murmured and forced his way inside along her.

After he smartened up his crumpled shirt irritated as he came along her, he straightened up and looked forward. Erwin was sitting at his table and his head was gloomily placed on his joined hands and leaned against the elbows. However, he couldn't care less about the commander as he noticed the person standing by the table.

The figure was still wearing the torn dirty rest of the uniform cloak. Despite it he recognized the familiar ginger locks under the hood as well as the soft pale palms with visible scar after biting herself or noticeable scar on her cheek which he couldn't miss even through the shadow.

She was standing there. Quite alive. He finally understood why Hanji kept gazing ahead so stunned. She probably couldn't believe it as well as he couldn't. She was absolutely excluded to appear here. He remembered her dead body, which was crushed under the limbs of titans pursuing them, too well. It came to his mind too colourfully how he had seen her deadly looking up to the sky while he pursuing the female titan.

She pulled the hood off and with sign of sorrow she smiled at him.

"It is so good to see you again, corporal," she pronounced with her sound firm voice he had already almost forgotten.

It sounded as if a ghost from the beyond just spoke to him. As if just another from familiar nightmares approached him in the sleep. It was the most beautiful view he had got to see recently, though. He realized that he was just gasping for the air like a fish just taken out on the dry place. The wave of happiness and joy due to her return absolutely swallowed him. He just came closer to her and grasped her shoulders as if he needed to persuade himself, that she didn't dissolve under his touch. Her cheeks blushed in the same way they had done before. He couldn't prevent himself from slight smile spreading on his face. His arms hugged her firmly that she gave out a startled gasp.

"But how?" he only managed to say while he pressed her together in his embrace and she just tentatively caught his back. One single tear of relief ran over his cheek how his eyes closed and he gripped her even more tightly and with noticeably lower voice he added, "I saw you… your corpse."

He kept inhaling the smell of her hair as if he couldn't have enough of it although he hadn't done anything like that before and he completely forgot about the commander and Hanji, who were standing in the room as well.

"I don't know it well myself," she answered with voice trembling in emotion and her breath slightly brushed his in some other time usually thoroughly covered neck. How he could have only ignored her. It was as if his eyes opened up now.

"Then tell us at least what you know," Erwin's voice resounded in the room and he rather let go of his resurrected inferior.

The pleasant warm, which was flooding his chest somehow partly disappeared with her body leaning away but the strange joy settled in his stomach, which kept dancing and jumping startled. Despite it he kept scrutinizing her as if he still couldn't believe his own eyes. Most gladly he would like to hug her again and never let her go.

"I don't know much, how it actually happened, but I regained consciousness somewhere in the middle of plane. There was plenty of corpses around me. I started panicking a bit as I recognized the dead bodies of Gunter, Auruo or Erd and something inside me had broken and I just remember that the world was spinning and then I appeared to be just in front of the walls. My head was aching and there were certain strange scars by my eyes similar to the ones Eren used to have often on trainings," she told them obediently and jumped with eyes from Hanji by the door to Erwin beside her and with the note of young soldier she looked again on him.

He knew exactly, what she was pointing out at but it absolutely couldn't get his head around how it couldn't have been possible. How she could just become a titan-shifter. In any case it would make sense. It would solve the problem about how she managed to survive. However truly it didn't matter to him at all right in that moment. The most important was that she was alive.

"So you think, you've got a similar ability to Jaeger," Erwin repeated in short and stared ahead deeply buried in the thoughts.

"Maybe, I can't explain it to myself otherwise," she admitted and looked away from him to face the commander again.

"Very well, then. In the meantime I wouldn't definitely spread this information. In any case I am glad that at least you survived," Erwin smiled, "Hanji, would you please take her into her room?" he turned to brown-haired captain.

"I have something more to discuss with you," she stated and the other captain turned to her as well.

She threw at his comrade played neutral smile but the sneer was well visible in her eyes and he knew she just did him a favour.

"It's okay, I will go by myself," the red haired woman noted with a smile.

"Good," Erwin shrugged his shoulders and started writing a report, "we will finish tomorrow, Petra."

"Of course," she nodded in agreement and turned his back to commander and already with cheeks flushed subconsciously she left the room with him.

He closed behind himself and complete silence fell upon them. First she looked straight up to his eyes before she innocently lowered them and set up forward shufflingly. The only thought that came to his mind was, how pleasant it was to look to someone's eyes from above again. He kept standing by the door and after very long time really honest smile appeared on his face and with heart alarmingly beating he just asked himself inwardly, how it could have been possible that he had missed her affection for so long time. He shook his head though and quickly caught up with his inferior before their ways split.

"I am really glad you're back," he remarked just before they approached the corridor where they should separate because his room was situated in the opposite wing of the fortress.

He just got to hear, how she loudly exhaled. The corners of her mouth curled in smile as he said so and she whispered in response: "So am I."

She sighted at him for a moment, how they kept standing in the hall. Her eyes blinked several times in embarrassment, so she just smiled and added: "Good night, corporal."

"Good night," he replied almost whispering before she turned her back to him.

He caught himself scrutinizing her for a long time, while she was walking away, before he rather turned his eyes away from her.

Immediately as he returned to the bedroom and laid on the bed, he just ruminated about the things, that just happened for a while as if he still couldn't believe it. After a moment the awaited sleep finally came to him after several weeks of insomnia. And he dreamt about her. And it was beautiful dream.


End file.
